Iowa Loss Shows the Huskers Still Haven’t Overcome the Biggest Hurdle

The Nebraska football team lost to Iowa 13-10 on a walk-off field goal in another Black Friday classic. Unfortunately for Husker fans, nine of the last ten games in this series have gone Iowa’s way, with four of those wins coming on last second Hawkeye field goals. This one was particularly painful for the Big Red faithful, as the Huskers dominated just about every facet of the game except for the one that matters. 

We cover it all in the topline takeaways. 

CHEERS TO THAT

Winning in the Trenches. Nebraska more than doubled Iowa’s total yardage output. The Huskers had 20 first downs to Iowa’s five. On the defensive side, the Blackshirts completely shut down Iowa’s vaunted run game, holding star running back Kaleb Johnson to 45 rushing yards, which accounted for all but four of the team’s total yards on the ground. By and large, the Huskers won the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball for the second week in a row. 

That fact makes the loss all the more maddening, of course. But it is promising to see at this point in the season. The offensive line has played their best football since Dana Holgorsen took over as offensive coordinator. The defensive line has been the strength of the D pretty much all season. This will be an important building block as Matt Rhule tries to get this program to the next level. 

Playmakers of the Future. As the season has progressed, Emmett Johnson and Dante Dowdell have emerged as Nebraska’s top two running backs. The shifty, explosive Johnson and the athletic, powerful Dowdell make for a great 1-2 punch that will almost certainly lead the Huskers’ rushing attack in 2025. Beyond that, we saw Jacorey Barney, Jaylen Lloyd, and Carter Nelson all make impact plays for the Huskers on Friday. And, of course, there’s Dylan Raiola. After some midseason struggles, he seems to have benefited from Holgorsen’s arrival as much as anyone. The offense has plenty of pieces to work with at the skill positions, to go along with a boatload of young offensive linemen whom Rhule brought in through his first two recruiting classes. If Nebraska can lock in Dana Holgorsen as offensive coordinator, there will be reason to hope that the 2025 offense can break out in a way the 2024 unit wasn’t able to. 

The Blackshirts. Nebraska’s defense dominated Iowa’s offense, holding the Hawkeyes to 164 total yards. Their one breakdown–a 72 yard touchdown reception by Kaleb Johnson that involved about five missed tackles–was painful, but it was really the only mistake made by the defense all night. While they haven’t been quite as dominant this season as they were in 2023, Tony White’s unit has been excellent during his two years in Lincoln. Losing the likes of seniors Ty Robinson, Nash Hutmacher, and John Bullock will be a challenge, but Jimari Butler and Marques Buford have already said they plan to return, and there are a ton of young defenders who have gotten quality playing time the last two seasons and will be poised for bigger roles next year. 

DIDN’T LIKE THAT

How Did We Lose That Game? Nebraska had a 10-0 lead at halftime. We’ve already outlined the multitude of ways the Huskers dominated most facets of the game. And yet, they couldn’t close the deal. The boys in red lost that game more than Iowa won it. After an impressive opening drive after halftime, an errant snap led to a missed field goal that would have made it 13-0 Nebraska. The Blackshirts forced a punt on the very next series, but a misplay by the punt return unit gave Iowa the ball at Nebraska’s 4 yard line. Instead of 13-0 Nebraska in the middle of the 3rd quarter, it was 10-3, and Husker fans started getting that familiar feeling in the pit of their stomachs. Then, Kaleb Johnson’s touchdown came at the worst possible time. It was early in the 4th quarter and the Iowa crowd had largely been taken out of the game. Despite the excellent performance by the defense, this one was costly. 

There were other mistakes. Dylan Raiola missed an open Jaylen Lloyd for what would have been a first quarter touchdown. Isaiah Neyor failed to secure a pass that would have put the Huskers in field goal range late in the game. Bryce Benhart got beat by an Iowa defensive lineman, who forced a fumble with under 25 seconds to go to set Iowa up for the game winning field goal. This isn’t meant to call out individual players, so much as it is to point out that Nebraska still doesn’t do the little things right consistently enough. These mistakes add up, especially against a team like Iowa, which is usually not the most explosive team, but they don’t make mistakes and they excel at making plays when plays are there for the taking. 

Special Teams. Again. It’s reached the point of being infuriating. It’s absolutely inexcusable for special teams to be this bad in year 2 of a coach’s tenure. The Huskers haven’t had a reliable field goal kicking unit all season. They apparently aren’t even trying to return punts anymore. The coverage units have been so-so. In my keys to victory article before the Iowa game, I made the point that Nebraska needed to at least make sure special teams didn’t hurt them. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. 

This one is particularly maddening because Nebraska has lost so many close games in recent years. Their whole theme of this year has been “Chasing 3,” as in chasing three more points to turn close losses into wins. That this would be such a teamwide focus, and yet special teams would be so bad all season long, is one major concern heading into the 2025 season. We’ll see how Matt Rhule decides to address it. 

Another One Score Loss. For the second consecutive season, Nebraska was in a tie game against Iowa with under 25 seconds left in regulation, with the ball. In both of those games, they turned it over and allowed Iowa to kick a game winning field goal in regulation. That should be impossible! How do they not even get to overtime?!?!?! Beyond Iowa, the Huskers have lost 10 games by a one score margin (eight points or less) just in the last two years, continuing a mind boggling trend that has been haunting Nebraska for a decade. 

Put another way, of all of Nebraska’s losses over the last two seasons, they were only blown out by Michigan (2023) and Indiana (2024). They played well enough to have a chance to win every other game, and they couldn’t do it. Getting over this hump will be the biggest hurdle for Coach Rhule, and could well define his tenure (for better or worse) at Nebraska. 

FINAL THOUGHT

I was as irritated about the loss to Iowa as any game in recent years. Nebraska absolutely should not have lost that one. It’s maddening to see the same old thing, again and again. It’s so, so annoying, frustrating, mind boggling, infuriating. That said, at least the Huskers got to six wins, and will be playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2016. Considering how low the program has been, that represents progress. My sense is that most Nebraska fans feel the Huskers should have ended the year with more than six wins, but at the same time, are excited about the bowl game and would feel pretty good to end the year 7-6. 

I will say this: not getting a couple more wins (especially against Iowa) puts more pressure on Rhule to make a leap in year three. Husker fans are not going to be happy with another year at 6-6. Rhule himself said after the Wisconsin game, this will be the last time the team celebrates six wins. For the sake of the program, for the sake of Husker Nation, for the sake of all of our sanity, that better be the case. 

As always, GBR for LIFE.

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